The City of Hamilton has been at a stage 3 heat alert since July 19, due to high temperatures combined with a Humidex of over 40. High humidity makes it harder for the body to cool itself through perspiration.

On Thursday, July 21, the temperature in Hamilton reached 36° C (96.8° F) with a Humidex of 48.

18 Comments

Read Comments

[ - ]

By John Neary (registered) | Posted July 21, 2011 at 22:37:47

One fascinating thing about this map is how clearly it illuminates the holes in this infrastructure. The central/west mountain (if you can call it that), Ancaster Village, and the Meadowlands deserve more pool love.

Hmm... Ancaster. Isn't that where they're content with non-developed trails, casual open spaces? I'd have thought they'd be fine with their in-ground pools...and their regular delivery of bottled water...

The Spec coverage of Joey and this map illustrate just how beneficial Open Data can be.

In one "simple" map (easy for me to say), Joey Coleman has done more to help all citizens, not just developers and activists, understand the value of giving creative developers access to information than anything that has appeared before. Well done Joey.

I highly doubt the city has refused. Knowing a bit about the double whammy of stifling bureaucracy and crappy web technology city staff have to deal with, I would be surprised to see them manage to get this on to their website before the end of summer.

He seems to list Inch Park as a wading pool...not sure the definition of that, I would think it's a full pool...also the city website has times here:
http://www.hamilton.ca/CultureandRecreation/Recreation/CentresPoolsArenas/InchParkArena/OutdoorPool.htm

By Robert D (anonymous) | Posted July 22, 2011 at 14:08:09
in reply to Comment 66789

Yes, they were listed as both, and I guess I only saw the one on the map, and only the one came up (perhaps because as you said they use the same GPS coordinates.

Now, my only caveat is, I don't know if the wading pool info is accurate, because they used to have both, a wading pool for toddlers and a real outdoor pool for the "big kids". Now, they've redesigned the place (newly reopened this summer) with one of those "Beach-style" pools, where it slopes to the deep end, and it's wheelchair accessible (maybe that's something to note!). I haven't been there myself, but I don't know if there's a section that's actually considered a wading pool anymore.

Great work, Joey. I was at the Dundas Driving Park yesterday to see Macbeth and like to think that some of the splash pad action was a result of your work.

I'd love to see someone create an app from Environment Canada that negates the need for filler stories expressing amazement at the weather – that it is, for example, wickedly hot and humid in summer or very cold and snowy in winter, or not quite hot enough to be the hottest ever or nowhere snowy enough to merit "snowmageddon" status.

By Art Brut (anonymous) | Posted July 24, 2011 at 09:57:20
in reply to Comment 66856

I've often admired your replies-as-riddles but never expected to get caught in the middle.

Not sure I take your meaning – I'm not pushing witty in-betweening. With all appropriate deference, I'm expressing a personal preference. Service journalism is far from useless, but "ain't it hot", as news insight, is toothless. Better are human interest stories or collabs in the social media category, maybe ace photo essays on the face of freak conditions that go on for days. Or, ideally, get down to the nitty gritty and push hard news about what afflicts our fine city.

Of course, none of this is a serious tiff – just a Sunday morning associative riff. More important is due praise for the days spent sorting aqua data so that we can all enjoy summer like kids rather than predictably blowing our lids. For his gift of this splashpad-and-pooler, huzzah for J. Coleman -- none cooler!